Battlefield Pacific

Professionals Talk Logistics

Jim Castle was doing his best not to lose his temper as he listened to the briefer tell them about the latest domestic attacks by Russian and Chinese Special Forces teams.

The General Dynamics project manager was present. “Our land systems factory in Lima sustained severe damage. While most of the facility was destroyed, the portion of the plant that maintained the molds for the tanks and other parts was not damaged. The mortars primarily landed on the production side of the factory. Had the rounds landed in the design portion of the factory, this would be an entirely different briefing.”

Placing his hands on his face for a second, Jim asked the million-dollar question. “How long is this going to take to repair? And how has this affected the country’s production of tanks?”

President Gates leaned forward, waiting anxiously for the response.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Secretary, it’ll take us several months to get the factory back up to full production,” the project manager answered. “With a 24-hour repair crew, we might be able to start limited production of tanks again in two weeks, but it’ll be at least four to six weeks before we’re back up to speed again.”

The President jumped in. “Ok, how many tanks were we producing prior to this incident, and how many are we able to produce now?”

“Prior to the attack, we’d gotten this factory up to producing forty-eight tanks a month, Mr. President,” the project manager explained. “We were still in the process of restarting the other production lines when the attack happened. Right now, the factory can probably produce roughly ten tanks a month until we get the other lines repaired.”

“What about the other factories?” the President asked.

The contractors looked nervously at each other. One finally dared to speak. “Sir, the Ford Motor Company stopped production of civilian vehicles roughly three months ago and turned the production lines to military production. They are just now turning out their first batch of forty tanks. In two months, that number should swell to around 160 a month. Prior to this attack, the Lima plant would have been producing 220 tanks a month as well, but obviously that number has now been reduced.”

Doing some math in his head, the President realized that with the rate of losses on the battlefield, compared to their ability to replace the lost tanks, they were coming up short, by a lot. “Jim, how short does this make us on military production?”

Castle turned to a piece of paper he had in front of him. He had been scratching some figures on it while everyone had been talking. “Mr. President, with current fighting, we’ve been losing roughly 62 tanks a month. During the height of the fighting in Europe and Korea, that number swelled to nearly 800 a month — far in excess of what our manufacturers can produce for us. Right now, we’ve been replacing those losses from our strategic reserve forces. However, we have no further reserves of equipment to draw from. The tanks our factories have been producing have been leaving the production line and arriving on the battlefield within seven days. That is how tight we are on equipment, Mr. President.”

Gates hung his head.

Castle cleared his throat. “Sir, it’s the same with ammunition, missiles, and aircraft. A bullet coming off the production line in Pennsylvania on Tuesday is being airlifted to Europe or Korea and fired by a soldier on Saturday or Sunday.”

“Dear God — are we really this close to losing the war?” the President thought in disbelief.

“Surely the Russians and Chinese are hurting in terms of equipment losses as well,” Gates said, summoning a morsel of hope.

Castle nodded. “They are, Mr. President. The difference is, their equipment is a lot easier and faster to produce because it’s less complicated to make. They are hurting, and our strategic bombing campaign is wreaking havoc on them, but it just comes down to time. Our factories have retooled for war, but they need more time to produce the equipment we need.”

Shaking his head in frustration, the President stood. “Everyone out, except senior staff. I need a private conversation,” he said. Three-quarters of the room exited, along with the representatives from a handful of critical defense contractors. Seeing that the room was now cleared and only his senior advisors remained, the President sat back down and stared at them intensely.

“I want a straight-up assessment. Are we on the verge of losing this war, or are we about to turn the corner?”

Some of the military and intelligence leaders exchanged nervous glances before Admiral Meyers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, spoke up. “It’s close, Mr. President. I wouldn’t say we’re about to lose, but we certainly aren’t on the verge of victory either. The recent attacks by Russian and Chinese Special Forces have significantly hurt our military production capability. They knew our Achilles heel, and they hit it hard. However, we are grinding their economy to a halt with our strategic bombing.”

The admiral paused for a second, searching for the words to say next. “The fallacy of war, Mr. President, is that it can be fought quickly and from afar. That isn’t always the case. Russia and China are not scrappy terror states that can be easily subdued. They are first-world nations with military power that rivals ours. The war we find ourselves in now is winnable, but it will take time, and a level of commitment our nation has never had to give before.”

Gates thought about that for a moment, then nodded. “I understand and agree, Admiral. I think the American people grasp that.” He shuffled some papers around, signaling a change in focus. “Now, how are the plans coming along with this new global alliance to stand up to — what are they calling themselves?” he asked.

“The Eastern Alliance,” answered JP, the Director of the CIA. “Its signatories now include Russia, China, India, Iran, the ‘Stan countries’ of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Angola, Mozambique, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Sudan, Chad, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Please keep in mind that a lot of these countries have had heavy Chinese, Russian, or Indian influences for many decades. Vast swaths of their economy are tied to India and China, who have invested heavily throughout the last thirty years in building roads, bridges, power plants, mining operations and other goodwill gestures. I also want to assure you, Mr. President, that by and large, these nations do not pose a real threat to the US or to the majority of our Allies.” He laid down the piece of paper he had been reading from on the table.

JP then added, “I wouldn’t be too concerned by these nations joining the East. The only countries that really pose a potential problem are India and Iran. We’re not sure what the Iranians may try to do with regard to Israel. I have been in talks with my counterparts in the Saudi Kingdom along with the State Department, and it does appear that they’re working closely with the Jordanians, Israelis, and the other Gulf States to hold Iran to the line and make sure they don’t try anything stupid. We’re hoping this budding Arab-Israeli alliance will help to keep Iran out of any major military activity in the Middle East.”

The President nodded, glad to hear some good news.

JP cleared his throat. “The Indians, however, are going to be a problem. Their economy is enormous, and they already have a large military. Although their army isn’t uniformly well-equipped, their front line units are very combat ready. Since they don’t have any threats to their border, they’ve been transporting several of their army groups to Russia,” he concluded.

Liam Greeson, the Chief of Staff, leaned forward. “And how goes our own coalition, the Global Defense Force?”

The GDF quickly became the United States’ new plan to replace the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance after multiple members had reneged on their support to the alliance and had ultimately been forced out. It had been slow going at first getting the idea approved by Congress, but now it was a race by State and Defense to get nations to sign on to defeat the Russians and Chinese and their new cohort of nations.

Jim Castle reached into his jacket and pulled out his reading glasses, which meant he was gearing up to answer this question. He opened a folder. “The formation of the GDF has been a bit chaotic at times, with some signatories expressing some concern over the direction of the war. I’ve managed to assuage their apprehensions for the time being, and we’ve secured the final main signatories. Even though they’re facing significant popular resistance at home, the United Kingdom has come around and will be a founding signatory of the new alliance. France has also signed, and to my continued surprise, has probably been the most proactive member of the alliance since the start of the war. They were a bit slow in recognizing the threat the Russians and Chinese pose, but now that it has been made clear, they’re all in.”

“Chancellor Hilde Schneider from Germany has also rallied her nation to the cause as well. It was almost a shoving match between them and France to see who would get to sign their name first to the agreement. All three of the countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula — Sweden, Finland and Norway — signed the agreement, as well as Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Italy, and, to our surprise, Spain and Portugal. Both of those nations had been kicked out of NATO, but after a lot of public anger by the populations in those countries and seeing the rest of Europe come together to meet this new threat, Spain and Portugal changed their tune and now they’ve joined the alliance.”

“Really?” the President interjected. He was a bit surprised at this change of course.

“Yes, Sir,” Castle answered. “Unfortunately, Greece and Turkey are still facing off against each other. It’s unclear if they’ll come to blows, but if they do, it’ll happen soon, so they’re both out.”

Jim paused from reading his list to look at the others around the table before continuing. “That covers Europe. The other nations that have signed on to the alliance are Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Brazil, Colombia, and of course, our brothers to the north, Canada. Privately, the Saudis, Jordan, Egypt and the rest of the Gulf States are with us but won’t formally sign on since Israel is a member. I’m confident that situation will change, though, as the Israeli-Arab alliance looks to control Iran. War has a strange way of creating blood brothers, and I suspect a fight with Iran will be a turning point for the better in the Arab-Israeli relations.”

“This is encouraging, Jim,” remarked the President.

“I agree, Sir, but I will caution you. While all of these nations joining our alliance sounds great, even powerful, please keep in mind most of these nations’ militaries are in even worse shape than our own. They’ve all been given a list of what types of units their military needs to form and troop numbers they need to reach along with timelines, but outside of the partners that are already actively engaged, it’ll be nearly a year before most of these countries will be able to contribute to the war.”

“Hmm…” said Gates, mulling that over.

Castle pushed forward. “I hate to harp on this point, Mr. President, but it’s just going to take time until all of the pieces are moved into place and ready. Until we reach that point, we need to focus on keeping the enemy off balance and reacting to us until we’re ready to finish this war.” If anyone was going to mobilize the country and alliance to war, it was going to be Jim Castle, the Warrior Monk, as he’d often been called.

The President’s expression turned from a smirk into a smile. “General Omar Bradley famously said, ‘Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics.’ I think that expression really applies to our current situation. As you all have said, this war is going to take time to win — time to retool and build the necessary tools for war. It’ll take time to acquire the resources, train the workforce, and create the tools needed to win this war. With that said, I want every avenue pursued to aid us in that endeavor.”

He made a motion to indicate that his Chief of Staff should write down what he was about to say. “If we haven’t already done so, someone please get in touch with the logistics departments of Wal-Mart and Amazon — they have the world’s largest logistical networks. Let’s see if they can help us in both acquiring and producing the tools needed to win. Talk with Elon Musk about how we can increase our production capability and find the areas of space and cyber that we haven’t thought about utilizing yet and get his thoughts on it. If he’ll partner with us to help defeat the Eastern Alliance, then I want his help. The same goes with the CEOs of Google, Facebook, and Apple. We need our tech giants to help us in this struggle. They suffered during the nuclear attack in the Bay Area, and they have a vested interest in helping us win. Let’s reach out to our titans of industry and get creative on how we’re going to win this war. We have to put our differences aside as a country and people and rally around the flag. It’s time we focus on our true enemy, the Eastern Alliance.”

Gates spoke with passion and conviction. They left the meeting filled with a renewed fire.